I must admit, that often when I am writing for long periods of time… Maybe when writing my ezine, or a new chapter for my latest book… I find myself checking my emails far too regularly “Oooh, another email may have come in during the last 10 seconds since I last checked…”
It has been a challenge to stop doing it.
Some people have told me that they find themselves looking for the red squiggly line to indicate incorrect spelling on the very rare occasions they actually write with pen on paper! Hahaha…
As a very keen reader and student, in recent years, I have found it more difficult to just knuckle in and concentrate on a book if I have no other windows to flick through, divert myself and stimulate me in other ways! I used to read for pure relaxation and out of utter love for it, though I still love reading, it takes my mind a little while to settle down after some prolonged time at the PC open to so much flashing, colourful stimulus of varying types!
So I guess the question needing to be asked is does habitual, extended computer use rewire the brain?
I think most people would think it does. However, this article at the British Psychology Society website cites much of what I am talking about today:
“…the Net seems to be…chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”
Carr isn’t the first person to recognise the possible psychological effects that the internet might be having on us. For some time, neuroscientist Professor Susan Greenfield has been warning that the immediacy and short-term excitement of screen interaction is stripping away our ability to follow a narrative and to understand context (you can hear Greenfield discuss her worries on Radio 4’s Start the Week).
The article does have a ‘however’ though…
However, it’s easy to forget that humans have always adapted to changing technologies. There’s nothing to suggest that the impact of the internet or computer use on our brains and behaviour will be on a different scale to previous new technologies.
Indeed, over at Mind Hacks, Vaughan Bell recently uncovered an article about the 19th century neurologists George Beard and Silas Weir Mitchell who were worried about the pace of life and the harmful effect new technologies were having on the brains of American citizens.
As Vaughan says, the article provides “a lovely illustration of the fact that since the dawn of popular medicine, our cultural concerns about changes in society are likely to be expressed in the language of illness and disease.”
“This is not to say that all fears about new technologies are unfounded,” he adds “but it’s clear that they are quickly medicalised and get far more prominence than the evidence supports, both in the 19th century and in the 21st.”
I watched a kids TV show with my niece recently and noticed how busy the screen was… As they get older, there are teenage magazine shows on TV where the screen is amazingly busywith so much varying stimulus and short clips buzzing around on the screen…
Constantly craving novelty, whether it’s the next text or email or something new on the internet isn’t necessarily a bad thing because most of us tend to believe that discovery and learning go hand in hand, if we can still digest and absorb the information we do have, rather than constantly consuming more and more information without ‘digesting’ it.
The brain is plastic and physically rewires in response to environment. Have you been to twitter? Man, there are some people who add a tweet every 30 minutes and seem to readily share heir ever-changing moods, thoughts, business promotions and all sorts in such a rapid fashion… By the way, I can be followed at Twitter… and I do contribute daily to it…
I have friends who are addicted to texting… I am certain it affects their spelling, I still text in fully, correct written English words… Have you noticed how the compulsive texter always seems to want to be elsewhere or laughs in slience at their communication with someone else not present? It is as if they are constantly wondering what else is happening elsewhere… Just like the twitter fanatics…
This is just the same as TV channel hopping or even fast surfing of the internet: ‘What if I’m missing something some place else’. Compulsive technology use in this way may be wiring our brains towards the “chattering monkey” that I was told I always had in my early days at meditation class…
The term vividly describes the way our minds stay busy and flit constantly with images, thoughts, internal dialogue that just will not seem to quieten down… keeping us away from inner peace and true serenity of mind… I encounter this a great deal when people come to see me for hypnosis, they worry they cannot quieten their busy minds… I just lightning bolt them with hypnotic trance and it soon abates those fears…;-)
So is it that wiring your mind into flightiness may be a way of wiring it away from good mental health?
Of course all that modern fangled technology (I can remember offering to get my Nana on the internet and she said to me ‘oh-no, it is all them michael-waves these days isn’t it? I don’t understand them… Haha) has huge benefits and can help us develop our mind’s and learn if we use it well… Just look at the Nintendo WII and the handheld DS thingys that have games designed specifically for that purpose now…
Where I think the main danger lies is in the notion that we could be losing the capacity to appreciate slower forms of thinking and information gathering that may be less surface or seem less instantly entertaining but in fact add depth to our thought… I find myself having to strike a fine balance on my training courses, where delegates expect to be entertained, learn valuable life skills and knowledge and have deep understanding of the subject matter…
Is it not a bit child-like to move our attention elsewhere if something is not immediately stimulating? Perhaps an under-rated skill to develop is the ability to focus for extended periods of time on material that isn’t instantly stimulating? In fact, much of the major progress in the world is generally made by people who have this capacity.
A good friend and therapist I know, teaches his weight redution clients to enjoy every tiniest morsel of food… In the same way a tea taster, or wine taster takes a tiny sip of the beverage and gets so much information about the flavours within it… Rather than people who gulp down their food and drink… You see, more subtle flavours can be discerned in food when we stop and enjoy more deeply and thoroughly… Moving away from the ‘yes but is it exciting’ relationship to information can develop our ‘information taste buds’ maybe?
I managed to avoid checking my emails and variety of websites while writing this today… Just! 😉
